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Orbit Airlines
Welcome ! ''HISTORY'' Orbit Airlines was originally founded on 22 August 1956 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The Airline started operations with a brand new Cessna 172 Skyhawk, which was delivered on the same day the airline was founded, starting sightseeing flights from Broward County International Airport (now Ft. Lauderdale International Airport). In the 60's, the airline started to offer charter flights in the general aviation business. The flights were offered mainly from Broward County International to Tampa, Palm Beach, and Atlanta. In 1969, Orbit placed orders for 15 Boeing 707s and 12 Boeing 727s. The aircraft were delivered to the airline in January and May 1970, respectively. In 1974, Orbit offered their first scheduled flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Raleigh. The flight was flown by the Boeing 727, which wasn´t big enough for the high demand on this route. Thus, the flights were well booked and bringing a good profit to the small airline. In 1975, Orbit began operating under a codeshare agreement with Atlantis Airways and, in 1976, began operating regular routes between Florida and the Bahamas, using Orbit's newly introduced fleet of Boeing 727s and Atlantis' fleet of Douglas DC-9s. On 16 October 1975, Orbit received its first Boeing 737-200, which was stationed at Miami Airport. From this day on, the airline was starting to get a big player on the international airline market. In 1976, the airline moved its headquarters to Tampa. Because the airline wanted to build up a network of holiday flights from there, two Boeing 737-200s were flown to destinations like Newark, Detroit, and St. Louis. Orbit Airlines also offered feeder services to St. Louis. On 19 November 1976, Atlantis Airways filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. In January 1977, Orbit decided to acquire Atlantis and their fleet of 21 Douglas DC-9s. The airline completed the merger in November 1977. In 1979, the airline began operating flights to the Western and Southwestern United States. For this, the airline placed orders for new widebody aircraft. Orders for 14 Boeing 747-100s, 17 Boeing 747-200s, and 20 McDonnell Douglas DC-10s were placed. In May 1981, Orbit received its first 4 DC-10s, all stationed at Miami. The next month, the airline began operating DC-10 flights from Miami to destinations such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Dallas. In March 1984, Orbit founded its regional subsidiary Orbit Connection. In November 1984, Orbit Connection began feeder services from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta and Palm Beach to Raleigh, operated by the deHavilland Dash 8-100. In 1986, Orbit received its first Boeing 757, which operated regular daily routes from the East coast to destinations in the Western US such as Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Seattle. On 09 May 1987, Orbit Airlines formed a codeshare agreement with low-cost Canadian carrier Contact Airways. The airlines then started low-cost seasonal flights from Boston and New York LaGuardia to Canadian destinations such as Halifax, Toronto, and Vancouver, which were operated using Orbits fleet of Dash 8-100s and Contact's fleet of Boeing 737-300s. In 1989, Orbit decided to start operating internationally. Thus, the airline placed orders for 27 Boeing 747-400s and 19 McDonnell Douglas MD-11s, the first of which were received in 1991 and 1992, respectively. In 1990, Orbit Airlines began a major fleet overhaul. In April, the airline began phasing out its aging fleet of 56 Boeing 737-200s and replacing them with the larger and more modern Boeing 737-400. Orbit also began retiring its fleet of 747-100s and 747-200s, which was being replaced with the more advanced 747-400. In 1992, Orbit began flying its new 747-400 and MD-11 aircraft on transcontinental routes between the US, Europe, Asia, and Oceana, with flights to London, Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, and Melbourne, via Miami, New York JFK, Houston, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. In 1994, the airline received 13 Airbus A320s for operating routes between the US, Canada, Mexico, and various other US territories. In 1995, the airline's last 747-200 was converted to a freighter aircraft and sold to Quantum Air Cargo. By then, Orbit had 17 747-400s operating medium to long haul and transcontinental routes to and from the US. In 1997, the last Boeing 737-200 was sold to an airline from Mallorca (Spain) and Orbit Airline meanwhile had a fleet of 86 Boeing 737-400, which were all purchased new. In February 2000, Orbit Connection placed orders for the ATR 72, Bombardier CRJ700, Bombardier Q400, and Embraer E195 regional airliners. Deliveries of these aircraft were completed in 2005, 2007, and 2008, respectively. Finally in 2001, Contact Airways filed for bankruptcy and merged with Orbit. It was decided to keep Orbit Airlines as the name for the new airline. All of Contact's aircraft were transferred to the Orbit Connection fleet and, thus, repainted from the blue, green, and white paint of Contact Airways into the red and white livery of Orbit Airlines. In 2002, Orbit decided to update their 23-year-old livery. In September, the airline introduced their new "Friendly Skies" livery, which consisted of a white upper half of the fuselage and a yellow bottom half with a yellow and blue tail. Also in 2003, Orbit Airlines placed orders for the Airbus A321 and Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 to replace and complement their existing fleet of 737-400s. In summer 2005, the first A321 was delivered to Orbit's largest US hub in Miami. The new aircraft also debuted the airline's new "Friendly Skies" livery, which is still in use today In 2006, the Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 was introduced step by step. In 2009, the airline moved to its headquarters back to Ft. Lauderdale, moving nearest to Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. In 2011, Orbit placed orders for the recently introduced Boeing 747-8I. The first 5 aircraft were delivered directly from Seattle to Miami in spring 2014, with 10 more aircraft still on order. In summer 2015, Orbit Connection placed orders for the Bombardier CS100 and CS300, deliveries of which are expected to begin in July 2018 and December 2020, respectively. Today the airline is one of the most profitable and very popular among the passengers. ''FACTS:'' FLEET: Accidents and Incidents On 24 December, 1983, Orbit Airlines Flight 5022, A McDonnell Douglas DC-9 was travelling from Miami to Louisville with 80 people. Shorty after takeoff the plane banked dangerously to the left and crashed. The sole survivor was a five-year-old boy. The cause of the crash was a broken pipe which caused hydraulic fluid to leak out, which caused the flaps and slats to fail. The DC-9 takeoff warning did not go off as it was control but the flap lever not the flap position. This flight was actually the third to last flight of this plane before retirement as the plane was 33 years old. The DC-9s were being replaced by Boeing 737-200s. This was the first fatal accident in Orbit's history. On 13 October, 1989, Orbit Airlines Flight 5925, A Dash-8 was travelling from Denver to Durango with three crew members and 21 passengers. While landing, it crashed into a small Cessna 172, killing all three people on the Cessna instantly. The Dash stopped short of the end of the runway. None of the 24 occupants on board the Orbit plane were seriously injured. The cause of the crash was that the Cessna 172 did not listen to the common air traffic frequency and did not look for traffic while taking off and also did not announce that they were taking off. On 7 June, 2000, Orbit Flight 872, a Boeing 757-200 travelling from Austin to San Fransisco with 198 passengers and crew, overran the runway at Ft. Lauderdale and ditched in the San Francisco Bay upon landing in rainy weather. All people aboard evacuated and rescued by the Coast Guard before the plane sank into the bay. The airframe was recovered from the bay, written off due to extensive damage, and has since become an aviation museum exhibit. On 19 March, 2001, Orbit Flight 37, a Boeing 747-400, N851OR, was travelling from San Francisco to Tokyo with 289 people aboard. During the flight's initial climb out of SFO, both the plane's port-side engines ingested a small flock of seagulls. The pilots were able to return to San Francisco and execute a successful emergency landing with no loss of life. The airframe's engines were repaired and the plane was restored to service the following month. On July 21st, 2002, Orbit Flight 7865, A Boeing 737-400 was travelling from Denver to Sacramento with 102 people. Near the end of the flight, the flight crew was unable to contact ATC and it travelled to Reno and held there. The jet finally ran out of fuel and attempted an emergency landing at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, which ended successfully. No injuries on board. On 21 March, 2004, Orbit flight 232, A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was travelling from Sydney to Los Angles with 304 people on board. Soon after takeoff the tail engine began surging and pulsing fire. The flight returned to Sydney on the remaining two engines. The cause of the engine failure was due to a fuel leak in one of the MD-11's fuel systems. This aircraft, like all of Orbit's other MD-11 planes, has since been retired in 2013 and sold to Global Freightways. On 5 May, 2007, in the middle of the night, Orbit Connection Flight 8320, a Bombardier CRJ700 travelling from Burbank to Reno with 47 people on board, collided in mid-air with Quantum Air Cargo Flight 23, a McDonnell Douglas MD-10-30F travelling from Seattle to Mexico City. All 49 people aboard both aircraft were killed and both aircraft were completely destroyed. An investigation discovered that the DC-10 pilots were unable to immediately detect the Orbit plane due to fatigue associated with the long flight hours. On 16 September, 2008, while operating as Orbit Airlines Flight 112 from Las Vegas to London, the same Boeing 747-400 involved in the Flight 37 incident in 2001, N851OR, experienced a catastrophic failure of the #2 engine while cruising over Texas. The flight diverted to Houston, where the pilots executed a successful emergency landing. 6 passengers and a flight attendant were injured by flying debris hurled from outside and the aircraft itself sustained moderate damage. Investigations determined the cause of the engine failure to be an undetected fatigue crack in the #2 fan disk that was overstressed when the plane flew in 2008. The 747 has, once again, since been repaired and is still in service with Orbit. On 29 August, 2014, Orbit Connection Flight 5612 was lost from radar en route from Salt Lake City to Omaha. Reportedly, the pilots noticed that the plane was banking to the left. Dismissing it as a malfunctioning Auto-Aileron system, the flight crew disconnected the autopilot and ultimately lost control of the aircraft. None of the 29 people on board the CRJ-700 survived. The investigation concluded that the rudder experienced a hardover as a result of poor rudder maintenance. The crash was attributed to both the hardover as well as pilot error because of the Flight Crew's Inexperience with the situation. On 18 September, 2016, an Orbit Boeing 737-700 was slightly damaged after a hailstorm peppered Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. No one was on board the plane, as the aircraft was parked in front of a maintenance hangar awaiting general inspection the next day. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service. Category:Europa